Utrecht
Utrecht, a vibrant and fast-growing city in the heart of the Netherlands, has a population of over 360,000.
Renowned for its historic canals, innovative infrastructure, and progressive urban planning, Utrecht is at the forefront of sustainable development. Around 40% of the city is composed of green and blue spaces, from community gardens to biodiverse parks such as Maximapark. The municipality’s Healthy Urban Living vision and Green Structure Plan prioritise liveability, climate adaptation, and citizen co-creation.
Utrecht is also a leader in digital transformation and smart city experimentation, integrating data and citizen feedback to guide urban development. Ongoing initiatives use citizen science data to inform cooling and greening interventions, such as co-designed pergolas and community gardens, while contributing to broader climate adaptation planning and monitoring efforts.
Combining lived experience and heat data to shape a cooler city.
In Utrecht, residents are helping shape a cooler, healthier city by sharing how they experience heat in their own neighbourhoods, especially in green-deprived areas such as Zuilen and Kanaleneiland.
Through the web-based Partimap survey tool, people share their perceptions of identified “hot” and “cool” spots based on personal comfort, considering factors such as shade, traffic, and wind. These everyday observations add depth to environmental data collected with wearable temperature and relative humidity (TRH) sensors and the EcoPulse app, which document heat exposure during daily routines. This citizen-driven data feeds directly into Utrecht’s Digital Twin, a dynamic model that visualises urban heat and integrates lived experiences with technical data.
Local NGOs and neighbourhood coordinators actively engage young people, students, and women from migrant communities, ensuring a more equitable range of voices is heard in shaping climate resilience. By combining heat stress perception data with environmental measurements, Utrecht is creating tools that support inclusive, street-level planning for a greener, cooler and healthier city.
Themes
Greenspace
Perception
Heat
Stress
Sensors / Technology / Data
Mobile
Applications
Wearable
Sensors
Discover Utrecht’s approach
Pop Up Community and Culture Labs
Urban ReLeaf Pop-Up Labs are short-term creative initiatives that transform citizen-generated environmental data into accessible community and cultural experiences, connecting science, creativity and local knowledge to make climate challenges visible and meaningful.
In Utrecht, the Pop-Up Lab focuses on heat stress in the neighbourhood. Artists Martijn Aerts, Aniek Karina and Sebastiaan Buwalda lead DATAdragers, a co-creative project that turns residents’ lived experiences and environmental data into interactive, wearable textile pieces. By combining personal stories, graphic elements, fabrics and sensor data, the project makes urban heat visible and tangible in everyday life. Participatory workshops invite residents to shape the artworks, culminating in a public exhibition at Bibliotheek Neude.
